


collar full

by jumpfall



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Spider-Man: Homecoming Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 16:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11604387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumpfall/pseuds/jumpfall
Summary: Tony does not propose at the press conference. It should be noted that this is not for lack of trying.





	collar full

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up where Spider-man: Homecoming left off with Tony and Pepper.
> 
> Title credit: 'Collar Full' by Panic! At the Disco

Tony does not propose at the press conference.

It should be noted that this is not for lack of trying. When Tony steps into the room, the look in his eye and the suspiciously ring box-shaped bulge in his pocket tell Pepper that he was not kidding, not even a little bit. He strolls up the center aisle with one hand in the offending pocket and a ear-splitting grin on his face that broadens with each step closer. He holds her gaze with warm, steady eyes, the chattering mass of reporters getting ready for the big announcement parting ways around him.

She can point to any number of moments that this one became inevitable, scattered across time and space alike. There’s an Iron Man suit wrapped around her and not him as their home falls into the ocean around them, a missed call from a California boy and New York number sent from outside the Milky Way, a company with his name and her power and their legacy. They made their vows when she pulled the outdated arc reactor out his chest the first time.

Still: this is not going to be the way he proposes. They’ve flirted with the public/private line so thoroughly they owe it a nice dinner, but some moments are theirs and theirs alone.

Pepper did not grow up dreaming of her wedding day, there is no book with dresses and flowers and venues in her closet; what she plans these days is battle strategies in word form: cover stories and redirects and extraction plans. This particular plan came into being years ago, and she has always thought of it as the Nuclear Option.

Tony drops to one knee in front of her and she has enough time to hear the gasps of the reporters in the first handful of rows before she leans over to whisper in his ear, “I’m pregnant.”

The spell breaks, his jaw drops, and her mouth twitches with mirth. “Kidding!” she says, patting him on the shoulder. “Mr. Stark is just tying his shoe, even Iron Man’s laces come untied every so often,” she tells the broader crowd.

He spends the rest of the press conference in stunned silence while Pepper rules over it with an iron fist, giving them previously unreleased details about the next generation of Stark Phones to thank them for their troubles in coming out here today.

“ _Pepper,_ ” he says later, scandalized. “You nefarious schemer, you devious minx, you red-headed rogue. I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“Would it have changed your mind?” she asks.

“Of course not,” he says, surprising himself more than her with the lack of hesitation in it. This, too, is not attributable to any one moment. “I still have the ring, you know.”

“I do.”

“Is that --?”

“No.”

“Just checking.”

-

Tony plans and discards proposals in Venice, Tokyo, and Montréal. He cancels on three restaurants, two live bands, and a skywriter before buying a candygram company and ploughing through the first batch of custom hearts in one particularly sugar filled evening.

In the end, he proposes in the workshop wearing a t-shirt and jeans, Dummy leaning over his shoulder with the open ring box clutched in his claw for her inspection.

She says yes.

-

This is actually the third ring, Happy tells her later. Tony bought the first soon after announcing to the world that he was Iron Man. Happy used to keep it in the center console of whatever car they were driving that day, until the car, the console, and the ring were sliced clean in half by Whiplash in Monaco.

The second was found fused into a greater pile of wreckage from the Extremis-induced explosion at the Chinese Theater; the gem was recovered, but the rest of the ring was written off.

Third time’s the charm.

Some couples engrave their initials, others dates. Pepper has Tony engrave _Mark III_ on the inside of the ring, because that’s just how they roll.

-

They sign a prenuptial agreement.

It states that in the event of separation or divorce, Tony is entitled to half of Pepper’s assets.

That is it, that is the extent of their prenuptial agreement.

-

A month after the proposal, Pepper wakes early.

She leaves a faintly snoring Tony sleeping in the bed beside her and heads out to the kitchen to start the first coffee pot of the day brewing. When it’s finished, she brings a mug out to the landing pad with her, steam still rising from the liquid. The concrete has been baking in the sun in the last few hours and is warm against the pads of her bare feet. She leans on the railing overlooking the grounds of the facilities, the mug held over the edge but firmly grasped between two hands.

This building is neither Stark Tower nor the Malibu house, but home for them has never been a street address. There’s a forest to her east and a highway to her west and her north star is the robot inches from her right foot.

“You know we have like, actual furniture, right?” She glances over her shoulder to find Tony leaning in the doorway, arms crossed loosely over his chest. The pajama bottoms, wild hair, and lack of coffee suggest he’s been awake for all of five minutes. “Wicker, Potts. I remember wicker. And throw pillows.”

“You do not.”

“You want a bowl chair? I’ll get you a bowl chair.” She smiles, and he comes to stand beside her at the railing, his arm warm where it makes contact with hers. “Hey,” he says softly. “Second thoughts?”

The first time she flew with Tony was a ten hour overnight from LA to Paris, two years before they bought the company jet. They caught the flight with five minutes to spare. Their luggage missed it by the same. Tony bought two large coffees at the first stand past customs and drained half of the first in thirty seconds before hanging her the second, the black AmEx used to purchase them, and a shopping list consisting of the following: a phone charger, a soldering gun, a spool of copper wire, a 10 MΩ resistor, and a bottle of whiskey. He threw together a replacement for the part the airline had forced them to check and then failed to deliver on a hotel room balcony, then spent the rest of the evening in the fashion district helping Pepper replace the contents of her suitcase.

She tells people this story when they ask if she’s sure about this, about Tony, because they seem to miss the fact that she knows better than anyone what she signed on for. Everything Tony does, he does loud and proud: it was true of his weapons, true of his track record as Iron Man, and is true of his relationships as well. She has hated him, loved him, grieved him, fucked him; overlooked forgotten birthdays and holidays and allergies; iced his wounds and bound his ribs and stitched him back together again; made out with him on rooftops and in hotel rooms on every continent except Antarctica; but one thing she has never been is _unsure._

She would tell him all of this, but he already knows.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” she says.

-

FRIDAY presents the wedding book he has compiled for them one morning, an itemized to-do list of everything they will need to take care of: invitations, decorations, caterer, DJ, guest list, venue, board meeting, television interview, press release.

“Tony,” she says. “I was thinking--?”

“Elope?”

“ _Yes._ ”

“I’ll call Rhodey, you call Happy, meet back here in ten.”

-

He announces their new status as husband and wife at a press conference three days later. Tony commemorates all the major events in his life with a press conference.

-

Their first night as husband and wife, Tony says, “okay, but consider this: Stark- _Potts_.”

“You’re not changing your name, Tony.”

“Spoil sport.” 

 


End file.
